Country profile - Distinguishing factors (Latvia)

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SOER 2010 Country profile (Deprecated)expired

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SOER Country profile from Latvia

Published: 26 Nov 2010
Modified: 21 Mar 2015

Latvia covers an area of 64 589 km2. Forest
land accounts for 50 % of the national territory of Latvia. Latvia lies in a temperate climate zone where active cyclones
determine rapid changes in weather conditions (190–200 days per year).
Annual mean precipitation is 600–700 mm.

Latvia is an independent democratic parliamentary
republic. The State President, elected by the
Parliament (Saeima), nominates the Prime Minister who forms a Cabinet of Ministers that has to be
approved by the Parliament. Fourteen ministries assist the Cabinet of
Ministers to achieve its targets.

Since 1 July 2009, there
have been 118 national level municipalities in Latvia,
including 109 municipalities and nine major cities. Cities and
municipalities have elected local governments.

At the beginning of
2008, the population of Latvia was 2 271 000 and 31.6 % of the population
lived in the capital, Riga. The average population density was 35.2 persons/km². The
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, calculated in
purchasing power parity units, in Latvia was 58 % of the average EU27 level in 2007. During the period 2001–07, Latvia had one of the highest growth rates in the average annual GDP in the EU and reached 10.6 %
in 2007, but after the start of the world economic crisis in 2008, the GDP rate
became one of the lowest in the EU and turned negative in 2009.

During the past six
years, small changes in the sectoral structure of Latvia’s national economy have been observed. Three
sectors — trade, manufacturing industry and construction — have had the most
stable growth. Industry has the top position in the growth of the state
economy. During the past seven years, the timber industry, the engineering
industry and hardware production have made the greatest contributions to industrial growth. Gradual growth rates were apparent in all economic sectors until 2008,
particularly in the transport and communications sector, due to the increase in
freight traffic, passenger transport services and the development of the communications sector, as well
as the construction sector.

Both local energy
sources (wood, peat, hydro resources, wind) and imported energy resources (oil products, natural gas, coal, electricity) are used in
the power supply sector of Latvia. In 2007, the share of renewable energy sources in Latvia’s primary energy balance was 28.8 %.

In Latvia, more than 70 % of the total generated
thermal energy is used in residential and public buildings. In 2007, there were 347 900
residential buildings with 1 035 700 housing
units in Latvia which comprised apartments, private houses, hotels, social care centres, and others.

A convenient
geographical location on the Baltic Sea with ice-free seaports (Ventspils, Liepaja), railroad and road networks, gas and oil
production pipelines, provide good opportunities for the development of a multimodal transport system in Latvia. Transit and international transport constitute
the major part of cargo transport with road transport as the most significant
mode of transport.